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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166402">Multiverse Incorrection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/5TERMINA5/pseuds/5TERMINA5'>5TERMINA5</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Parasyte AU [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Codes &amp; Ciphers, Cross-Posted on Amino, Cults, Everyone messes up, Glitches, Government, Guns, Henry Stickmin Knows about Alternate Timelines, How Do I Tag, I mean, Let Me Live My Life, Mild Blood, Minor Violence, Not Beta Read we die like Charles, Opening the FILE, POV Third Person, Parasyte Au, Popcorn, Toppats, Violence in the future-, Why am I tagging things for future chapters, a LOT of references, i hate you microsoft, just spaghetti, like 4 OCs, no cannibalism here, references, why is that a tag</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:15:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,019</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166402</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/5TERMINA5/pseuds/5TERMINA5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a certain event to do with our favourite stickmen, anomalies known as 'glitches' are released.<br/>Some live peacefully with them, others more aggressive, their source and origin still unknown as the appearance of the latter is becoming more and more frequent, disrupting reality as the community has been forced to adjust to their presences.<br/>However, through all of this one thing is certain-<br/>Henry is really, really not going to have a good time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Burt Curtis/Sven Svensson, Charles Calvin &amp; Henry Stickmin, Ellie Rose &amp; Henry Stickmin, Ellie Rose (Henry Stickimin) &amp; Original Character(s), Henry Stickmin &amp; Original Character(s), Reginald Copperbottom/Right Hand Man</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Parasyte AU [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141115</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Deffy’s footsteps grew louder as they thumped against the hard tile floor, in sync with his heavy breath which came with the strain of carrying his large blue backpack, filled to the brim with heavy books weighing him down. Said blue backpack matched exactly with the completely blue suit (jeans were some shade of blue, he supposed. He couldn’t make the same excuse for his silver boots, however) he was wearing, a contrasting bright red and yellow tie wrapped around his neck as it flapped in the non-existent wind. His burnt orange hair stood out, the large ahoge stemming out from his forehead not helping him to blend in. Maybe that was why so many people were staring at him as he continued running down the hall.</p>
<p>There were only a few thoughts that swarmed his head as he continued running down the arguably long hallway, mainly consisting of how he would miss the discussion meeting and how he couldn’t allow that to happen.</p>
<p>Especially not in a grand, important place like this…</p>
<p>These thoughts echoing through his head only further drove his determination as he dashed past the monochrome colored shelves filled to the brim with physics books (and oddly enough, picture books too) as well as the large drinking fountain, in favor for his destination.</p>
<p>What he forgot about was how tile floors are known to be both durable and very, very slippery.</p>
<p>In one sharp turn of a corner, his instincts somewhat sloppy paired with his poor hand-eye coordination, Deffy messed up on his footing and he stumbled down onto the hard floor, the lighting causing it to glimmer as he attempted to pick himself up but failed, his energy having been mostly used up when he was running down the corridor.</p>
<p>Pieces of paper and pencils were littered everywhere on the floor, having fallen out of Deffy’s pockets and the small black bag he had been carrying. The impact had also caused a few people to pay attention to what was happening, drawing needless attention to himself. He blushed furiously, red blossoming across his face as his blue eyes lowered in a shame of a sort.</p>
<p>As he was about to begin gathering his books, he felt a light, somewhat playful tap on his left shoulder. He whipped his head around to face the source of the touch and was met with a pair of blue jeans with the sides of a white lab coat visible.</p>
<p>That’s right… he was still on the floor.</p>
<p>He looked up, finally able to study the person who was standing up in front of him. SHE- he realized it now- was a redhead female doctor, wearing what seemed to be the normal uniform of a long white labcoat, a pale blue undershirt and blue jeans. She also donned a purple rose hairclip, which drew Deffy’s eyes to it, despite her holding a hand out towards him, presumably for him to take.</p>
<p>“Well, don’t just lay there!” She snickered as she grasped his hand, abruptly pulling him up as she gripped it tightly.</p>
<p>He squinted, looking at the nametag on her coat in a manner that one could even describe as suspicious.</p>
<p>‘Dr. Ellie Rose’, it read in bold, easy to read black font. He’d have to be blind to miss it.</p>
<p>“Ah, sorry for the trouble, uh… Miss Rose….” He tried, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he slowly got up, still looking at her nametag as he did.</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes, picking up some of the pieces of paper as she ignored the many people who were now staring at the duo. “It’s just Ellie. I’m looking forward to working with you,” she said as she handed the ex-fallen items to him.</p>
<p>In one swift movement, she turned around and walked away, leaving him to shove the items back into his bag as his confused expression failed to leave his face.</p>
<p>Well, that was somewhat awkward…</p>
<p>Did they even work in the same sector?</p>
<p>Deffy felt like facepalming. Of course… He worked at the Passive sector, while this meeting was taking place in the Hostile glitch department. They were on complete opposite sides of the campus, too… why had she said that she looked forward to working with him? It wasn’t like he was new or anything, he was one of the top researchers of his department, and that meant that he… would likely move soon…</p>
<p>Was that what this meeting was about? He hadn’t exactly been informed, only given an Email stating that he was invited to join one here, at 10:00 am- exactly 3 minutes and 15… 14 seconds from now. He would’ve suspected that it was a scam for it have not been his boss’ address which sent it. And he couldn’t dare take a risk of disobeying his boss, just in case…</p>
<p>He bit his lip nervously. Although it was almost time for it to start, he was very close, judging by the nearby map that he had seen on one of the walls. At least, he hoped so- he had been somewhat distracted by some of the unusual people around here. One of the researchers had half of their face covered by a black mask, another had their face fully covered by a yellow mask with a rectangular screen to see through, someone else next to the water fountain wearing goggles and picking up calculators and shoving them into plastic bags…</p>
<p>There was even someone who was lying on top of one of the many shelves doing a ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ pose, which Deffy had a hard time ignoring. But he eventually managed to draw himself back to the task at hand, which was getting to the meeting room.</p>
<p>About two minutes later (He still had a minute and 15 seconds left, he was fine, luckily) he found the room he was looking for. According to the Email and the map, this was it, office 28-A. Why there were so many offices, he didn’t exactly know, but it wasn’t his place to question it.</p>
<p>He pushed the slightly heavy light brown wooden door open, turning the silver handle as he did so. There wasn’t a window, so he was unable to mentally prepare himself for the large room filled with people, of many different sizes and professions. He counted at least ten information researchers (including the peculiar redhead from before), five contact researchers…</p>
<p>There was even two hunters and one man wearing a gray turtleneck without a nametag, perhaps with no profession. He was sitting at the very back left-hand side of the room. Deffy noticed him glaring at the box of emergency teleporters at the front, the opposite side of the room to him, with a hatred indescribable when put into words.</p>
<p>Before he knew it, five minutes had gone by, the allotted time to let any ‘late’ people into the room. The door was closed and locked with a ‘thud’, which had caused him to whip around and face it, and he felt a lump in his throat as he saw it closed. It was likely just in case any unauthorized personnel were listening in, but…</p>
<p>Deffy looked around at everyone nervously, biting his lip as he looked back towards the front, where a few men wearing black were standing. He snickered, imagining them with dark sunglasses on. That’d complete the look, right?</p>
<p>“You’re probably wondering why you’re all here.”<br/>Yup, they got that right…</p>
<p>“We’re here to discuss two things, really only one, since they’re both based on the same topic.”</p>
<p>He nodded in anticipation. They couldn’t exaggerate it more, could they hurry up? Was this what all characters in those big movies felt when they were trying to find out what a secret was, and people just kept giving them more stupid cryptic messages?<br/>Probably.</p>
<p>“As you probably know, more and more glitches have been appearing ever since the event that led them to come into our dimension in the first place. Well, for some reason, they’ve been even more abundant now, concentrated around the townsfolk, interrupting their previously peaceful lives. As you know, it is our job to keep everything in order.” They grunted, eyes flickering around the room. Deffy gulped.</p>
<p>“Now, we’ve gathered all of you around here since you all have your own jobs to do. The information researchers are going to find out what they can, surveying the townsfolk to find a sort of pattern in what sorts of glitches they are encountering. Any other sort of relevant info will also be helpful.” They nodded at the researchers, the redhead giving a salute, but backed down shyly when the others turned to glare at her.</p>
<p>“The contact researchers are going to search for the glitches themselves and also give reports about their findings. The hunters are going to assist the contact researchers with finding these glitches, helping to eradicate them if necessary, which it likely will be in this case.” He nodded, now that he knew what he was meant to do, he supposed that this was the end of the meeting.</p>
<p>“We have also organized a team of three, best in each of their divisions, to attempt and do all three of these things, mostly undercover. We’re going to supply all them with everything that they need.”</p>
<p>Deffy swore that one of their eyes met his, but that couldn’t be the case, right…?</p>
<p>Sure, he had been described as the best Passive information researcher, but that didn’t specifically mean that he was one of those people who were contacted… He hadn’t even gotten a reason for the Email, he wouldn’t be one of the important people….</p>
<p>
  <em>He was too useless to be a ‘main character’ like that.</em>
</p>
<p>Any possibility of denial was washed away with the next sentence.</p>
<p>“We have nominated our top Passive and Hostile information researchers, as well as our best Contact researcher. Would Ellie Rose, Henry Stickmin and Deffy Recein please come up?”<br/>Well, he was officially screwed.</p>
<p>The turtleneck guy who had been in the corner- Henry, he reminded himself- as well as the girl from earlier, Ellie, walked up along with him as he could feel a blush spread across his face from embarrassment. He was already mocked plenty for being a ‘nerd’, he didn’t need this as well…</p>
<p>Facing the front, he couldn’t turn and look at the people by his sides or get distracted like he normally would.</p>
<p>“By tomorrow, you’re going to pack up your supplies and get ready for the quote on quote ‘anomaly road trip’ of your life.”</p>
<p>
  <em>Things won’t be normal, ever again.</em>
</p>
<p>“Well, what are you doing? Don’t dawdle- you’re all dismissed!”<br/>Everyone apart from the trio (Yes, including the suited men at the front.) left the room, some muttering and chatting to each other topics that he would rather not know about.<br/>“Well, uh, it’s nice to meet you- I’m Ellie Rose, but Deffy, you prooobably already knew that…” She grimaced as she looked at both Henry and him. The former was staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face, but he ignored it in favour for his own crippling thoughts.</p>
<p>Well, this was it. His life was finally breaking apart.</p>
<p>Partially in shock, somewhat in confusion and shame, but mostly an even mix of all those things, Deffy fell backwards onto the floor, fainting with a loud crashing noise.</p>
<p>“Yeah, that- that was probably the sort of response I was expecting.” Ellie said as Henry rolled his eyes, picking the unconscious researcher up from the floor and slowly walking towards the door.</p>
<p>“I don’t know how we’re supposed to survive like this…” He muttered under his breath as he opened it with his elbow (due to his lack of free hands, of course) and took a few more steps out of it, not looking back at Ellie once, paying attention only to the sound of his own quiet footsteps treading on the tiled floor.</p>
<p>Ellie blinked as she was left alone in the large, dark room, not having the energy to run after him as she thought to herself.</p>
<p>
  <em> 'He's probably right.’</em>
</p>
<p>
  <strike><em>"L grq'w nqrz," Wkhb khdyhg zlwk d vljk. "Vkrxog zh uhdoob ulvn eulqjlqj wkhp lqwr wklv?"</em><br/>BHV. BHV. BHV.<br/>"Li brx'uh vxuh lw'v wkh uljkw ghflvlrq..." Wkhb ilqlvkhg wdonlqj wr wkh vkdgrzv, zdonlqj hyroylqj lqwr d idvw-sdfhg vsulqw.<br/> ...WKLV LV RI QR LPSRUWDQFH. SDB WKLV QR PLQG, U H D G H U.</strike>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A journey begins.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ellie grumbled under her breath as light hit her previously closed eyelids. After shifting in her place a bit more, she yawned loudly and ruffled the covers as she moved her arms to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She continued shuffling, creating numerous wrinkles in the bed sheets as she slowly sat up, throwing said sheets and covers off her as she turned to the side of the bed and dangled her legs over the edge.</p>
<p>Turning her head carefully, she looked at the red calendar on the otherwise bare, white wall, which had a dark blue exclamation mark on it. It was her handwriting, in pen, so this day must have been important for some reason or another… what was it again?</p>
<p>It didn’t strike her until she managed to, after a while, fully stand up, as she began carefully making up her bed. She noticed the peculiar, cube-shaped and five-sided box of supplies in the corner of her room which hadn’t been there when she went to sleep.</p>
<p>As soon as she finished making her bed, somewhat hastily, she walked towards the black box, seeing the clothes, backpack, materials, and equipment inside of it. They were all stacked on top of each other, and some of the items had been stuffed inside each other (her surprise when there was a flashlight in the shirt). Why would she need those things…?</p>
<p>Ellie realised what the ‘important event’ was when she saw her work name tag on the uniform reading her full name and profession- right, the special trio mission or whatever. She didn’t really understand what the point of going in a small trio was, but hey, she wasn’t the one in charge here, she’d just do what she had to.</p>
<p>She looked around her room. Well, if she was going on a mission, then she supposed she’d have to pack her own personal belongings or whatever…</p>
<p>Especially since they were supposed to be leaving today.</p>
<hr/>
<p>By the time that Ellie had completely packed everything away in the large backpack she had been provided, it was already noon. Well, this wasn’t much of an achievement, considering the fact that she had woken up at 9, had breakfast for an hour, and then watched the news for another.</p>
<p>Seriously, was there no possible way that she could just focus on her task instead of getting sidetracked by something that had absolutely nothing to do with the job at hand?!</p>
<p>Apparently so.</p>
<p>Sighing, she swung the pack onto her shoulders as she looped her arms through the straps and tightened them. She tied her navy shoelaces hurriedly and messily, redoing it once due to a silly mistake and then exhaling in relief. She stood up and walked out the door, marching straight into her front porch and then past that.</p>
<p>She went over her mental checklist of what she had and hadn’t packed, and after confirming that she had done it the way that she wanted, she walked into the driveway in order to get in her car and drive to work, only a bit more nervous.</p>
<p>This plan would never come to fruition, as Ellie immediately noticed a large white van seemingly almost waiting for her, judging by the exhaust emitting from the pipe. These suspicions were confirmed when the door automatically opened, revealing an ecstatically waving Deffy (Who seemed much more confident and enthusiastic now, thank goodness) and a somewhat bored Henry who was looking down at some pamphlets.</p>
<p>She walked slowly towards the vehicle, careful not to step on anything that she would regret later on as in one swift motion, she took the backpack off and held it in her hands.</p>
<p>Ellie walked up the large step a fairly reasonable gap from the ground as she hoisted herself up, stepping into the van and sitting down next to the positive Deffy as he continued smiling at her excitedly. She rolled her eyes- so he would be the one of the group who would constantly ask questions and become all curious-y or whatever? Fine with her.</p>
<p>She watched as he pulled out a book and began furiously scribbling in it, sticking his tongue out in thought.</p>
<p>What was he even doing?</p>
<p>Well, some questions would never be answered, she thought as the vehicle rumbled and began moving.</p>
<p>How far away was their destination supposed to be, anyways?</p>
<hr/>
<p>The question happened to be the underestimation of the year, Ellie found out as she yawned and looked down at her watch. Somehow, due to it being winter or whatever the opposite of Daylight Savings was, it had gotten dark extremely quickly. The other two had already fallen asleep, Henry staying silent and still while Deffy mumbled something about knights, penguins and pink balls*, whatever that was supposed to mean.</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes as she looked up at the sky. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to fall asleep for one… quick… moment…</p>
<p>She closed her eyes, attempting to fall asleep but was interrupted by a large bump in the road and then the vehicle stopping completely.</p>
<p>Ellie instantly opened said eyes, scanning the area. The others had just woken up, scrambling to get back into their seats as they noticed that they had, in fact, stopped.</p>
<p>Great. She didn’t even get a wink of sleep, all because she was willed enough to actually stay awake. And it even happened when she was trying to…</p>
<p>That was an incredibly stupid coincidence.</p>
<p>Henry groaned and pushed a button, which began automatically opening the doors. After thanking the driver in a hushed voice (he doubted that they could hear him, but it was the thought that counted), he leapt out and placed a hand upon the brown toolbelt that was strapped around his waist.</p>
<p>Ellie and Deffy stumbled out shortly afterwards, the former putting her backpack on again and the latter hanging the navy purse he was equipped with around him. Why he had gotten a purse, he didn’t know, but he was perfectly fine with it. He supposed that Ellie had been tasked with gathering most of the survival equipment, judging by the big backpack.</p>
<p>He was stopped from thinking about this as he looked upwards into the city. Since most of the research facilities and homes were secluded from the main community and most civilians, they weren’t used to the bright lights still shining and glowing in the distance. Restaurants, apartments, casinos, shops… They could see all sorts of great buildings of varying sizes as they gazed upon the scenery.</p>
<p>Henry shrugged. He had seen it all before, and while it looked cool, it wasn’t worth his time. He scoffed and looked back at the van as it began leaving, the other two still entranced by the sights.</p>
<p>“We should probably go check into a hotel, or begin investigating. It’s getting late, so we should do the former,” he sighed the first spoken words in this chapter as he walked a bit closer and looked into the distance for a possible place to temporarily reside in.</p>
<p>The other two looked at each other simultaneously, Ellie then turning away and staring at Henry.</p>
<p>“So, we’re going to just… wander around until we find one?” She asked, tilting her head as she spoke with curiosity filling her voice.</p>
<p>“Well- yeah, that’s the plan. Do you have any other better ideas?” He sputtered out somewhat nervously. There really wasn’t much else that they could do…</p>
<p>They shook their heads, and he sighed. That was what he thought, there wasn’t much else they could really do. Apart from…</p>
<p>“Wait, can’t we just look up one on our phones? We’re not living in, like, 1987 or 1988 or whatever. We have modern technology!” Deffy abruptly mentioned almost out of the blue, the other two whipping their heads around to face the researcher.</p>
<p>“Fair enough…” Henry murmured as the other male excitedly took a phone out of his pocket and began punching some letters in after he selected the ‘map’ app.</p>
<p>“Okay, the closest one which isn’t a homeless shelter and is in probably good condition is a 10 minute walk… I’ll lead the way!” He proclaimed loudly, grinning as he began marching off towards the city. Henry shrugged as Ellie followed him albeit somewhat cautiously.</p>
<p>“I’m going to die sometime anyways, so why not?”</p>
<hr/>
<p>Sooner rather than later, the trio had managed to find the random hotel that Deffy had located via the internet (they got lost once or twice, but they got there in the end) and after checking in with both money and a death threat to the receptionist from Ellie, they got the keys to their room. They managed to settle in quickly and easily after that.</p>
<p>They managed to fall asleep instantly, even though two of them had already slept quite a while. Time passed like King Crimson** had erased it, and soon enough it was already 8:30am, no longer midnight. The sun had risen in the sky two hours (and 23 minutes) ago, so they figured that they would go ahead and get up. It wasn’t that late…. It was pretty early, in fact.</p>
<p>They did have a job to do, so they supposed getting up early would be practical.</p>
<p>Yawning, Henry clambered out of the bed, falling out awkwardly before instantly getting up and fixing the sheets as if it never happened.</p>
<p>When walking to the menu to order breakfast, he saw the other duo sitting on the couch and looking at various different objects- a Nintendo Switch and a lime notepad. They must’ve belonged to them since they certainly weren’t from the cheap hotel.</p>
<p>He walked up to them. “I’m going to go get some takeaway breakfast… what do you guys want?”</p>
<p>Ellie was still focused on her game, mashing the A and B buttons repeatedly. “I’ll have- ugh- sausage, eggs and toast-”<br/>Deffy looked up from his notepad. “I’ll come with you!” He said enthusiastically as he stood up, smiling as he put his notepad back inside his breast pocket.</p>
<p>Henry gestured to him as he walked towards the door, opening it and going through it. The other hastily followed him in pursuit.</p>
<p>“While we’re out,” Henry said as he wandered down the hallway, still not facing him. “If you see anyone, ask if they’ve seen anything unusual or paranormal. That’s our job here, remember?”</p>
<p>Deffy’s eyes widened as he nodded, and the contact researcher smiled. Good- it seemed that they would be able to get some things done. Maybe.</p>
<p>Soon enough, they arrived at the restaurant-café section of the hotel. While Henry walked up to the front and began ordering food, Deffy was left at the table, looking for someone to talk to like he had told him to.</p>
<p>He spotted a man in a black cap with some white writing on it (he couldn’t see it from his perspective, at least not at the distance he was at) looking down at something on his seat and petting it. He swore he saw a flash of pink but couldn’t confirm it as his hands completely covered it.</p>
<p>Deffy walked towards him. Maybe he had seen something weird, and it could help them on their mission!</p>
<p>It didn’t really feel like a mission, though, more like some sort of vacation… Odd, if you asked him…</p>
<p>He shook his head. No, that wasn’t true. They had a job to do, and he would definitely finish it!</p>
<p>He walked towards him, a bounce slightly implanted into each individual step as the excitement of talking to a new person bubbled up inside him.</p>
<p>“Hi! I’m Deffy, uh- this probably seems kinda random but have you seen anything weird happening recently?” He sputtered out in one breath, a bit too excited. He blushed slightly- this was kinda embarrassing.</p>
<p>The man looked up at him, a smile on his face as he held the object that had previously been in his hands into his pockets.</p>
<p>“Hi, I’m Dave! It’s nice to meet a new face here as well! I’m on vacation here, so I haven’t seen much… I don’t know what was normal here before, so I can’t really answer that question… Sorry,” He subconsciously patted his pockets as he looked at Deffy with a smile on his face.</p>
<p>“No problem, it’s fine! So, anyways, I guess I’ll just-”</p>
<p>Deffy stopped talking when he saw Henry walking towards them. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it immediately when he realised that he had begun talking to Dave instead of him.</p>
<p>“Oh, Dave! I didn’t realise that you’d be here. How are you two?” Henry asked, suddenly friendly as he casually spoke to the other.</p>
<p>“We’re good! Yeah, I’m on vacation… Is this a friend of yours, Henry?” He replied with a smile on his face as he looked at Deffy curiously.</p>
<p>“Well, you could say that- we’re on the lookout for any possible sources of glitch number fluctuations. Specifically, neutral-aggressive.” He said, nodding as Dave mouthed a silent ‘oh’.</p>
<p>“Huh… No, not really. Although, I have heard that the Toppats are going to be visiting here soon- I guess you could ask them, since they’re supposed to know a lot about glitches!” Dave suggested somewhat helpfully, and Henry’s eyes widened.</p>
<p>“Alright then, thank you- I’ll go give Ellie her breakfast, we should eat as well. Once again, thanks for the help.” Henry nodded as he began walking away, his companion following him as he smiled at both of them.</p>
<p>The duo sat down at the table and began eating.</p>
<p>“So- we’re going to eat, and tell Ellie what’s going on. Then, I guess we’ll set off.” Henry sighed, swallowing a bite of toast.</p>
<p>“To where?” Deffy asked, not completely understanding. Henry bit his lip as he looked down at his food.</p>
<p>“We’re going to look around for more glitches. And then…”</p>
<p>“We’re going to the Toppat base.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I had some art but it doesn't load- here, if you want to see it. https://aminoapps.com/c/henrystickmin112/page/blog/multiverse-incorrection-ch-2-parasyte-au-ch-2/N5zr_0WcMu42YvdP6wPBKaoE60ZNmBRwe6 <br/>And now, the real notes:<br/>Fun Fact: I listened to Kirby remixes while I was writing this.<br/>Now, I put two references in, so here we go-<br/>*- Kirby. He’s dreaming of Kirby (Meta Knight, Dedede, Kirby)<br/>**- King Crimson is a Stand from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure that can erase time. That’s all I can say without any spoilers…<br/>And that’s it!<br/>Next Time: We see some Toppat PoV!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Minor blood warning.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Burt sighed as he boredly and tiredly stared at the screen in front of him, one hand on his cheek supporting his face as he yawned loudly, nobody else in the dark and secluded room to see him perform the feat. With his free hand, he was constantly and unenthusiastically clicking his mouse to change the different perspective to each security camera currently showing up on said screen.</p>
<p>He had been at this for hours by now, or it at least felt that long- he was tempted to just throw off his headset-hat abomination and just go take a nap, but this was his job, and he couldn’t just not do his job. That much was sort of obvious.</p>
<p>He had taken phone calls, directed people through products and to websites, and now it was time for his shift on the cameras.</p>
<p>…He knew that he only had all of these jobs because he was good at them all, but that didn’t make him any more willing to do it, and it certainly didn’t make it any more fun for him.</p>
<p>Honestly, maybe he could even just stop doing the jobs, so he’d get less of them. Maybe then he’d have more free time.</p>
<p>Burt continued to press the mouse, the clicking not irritating him due to the headset muffling the noise, boredom not seeming to be going away any time soon.</p>
<p>However, he was instantly alerted by the knock on the door. It had taken him a few seconds to register it once again due to the headset, but after the same sound was repeated again (albeit louder this time, whoever was knocking seemed to have a short patience) he groaned, getting up and opening the door as he walked towards it.</p>
<p>“Ugh… what is it…” He whined, tired as he gripped the silver handle tightly and turned it, pushing open the brown wooden door at the same time.</p>
<p>He opened his mouth to complain some more, but quickly shut it when he saw who was at the door- a blue-hatted Toppat with a matching dark blue suit and bright, short blond hair sticking out from underneath the hat.</p>
<p>He instantly closed it as he recognized his superior.</p>
<p>“It’s time for one of those government checkups or reviews or whatever- you’re late, we’re supposed to be there in two minutes. Hurry up, Burt,” Sven scoffed and rolled his eyes, but Burt knew that he was just being playful, in his own way. He nodded and quickly grabbed a black coat off the rack, wearing it over his reddish-orange suit to match the colour scheme that he always had.</p>
<p>As he left, the door now closed as the two began to banter about what was appropriate uniform and what wasn’t, he missed the still-open security camera footage on the computer becoming covered, a piece of dark reddened paper taped over the camera.</p>
<p>The red splotch on the paper was still dripping.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Burt and Sven swiftly arrived at the meeting table, three familiar Toppats sitting around the table, all high-ranked and notable figures of the clan.</p>
<p>Four government members, one which Burt recognised as the general in charge of this division- whose name he couldn’t remember for the LIFE of him- the rest new to him. He hadn’t been to too many of these before- this one was unusually close to the last one. Did the Government think that they were doing something wrong?</p>
<p>It wasn’t like they were doing anything different- and if it meant anything, he was pretty sure that nothing had changed in the months they had been in the recent business of creating weapons specially crafted to destroy glitches. Not that Burt was too into that; his job was just advertising and helping people sort any issues out. Like an IT of a sort.</p>
<p>He wasn’t the one in charge of the weapons department- Perran was. Burt looked at the male, inspecting him closely. The two hadn’t really interacted too much, which came as a surprise due to the similarity of their work…</p>
<p>The blond wore a red collared suit, with the bottom half of it a darker red than the top half. The orange belt wasn’t positioned to separate the two, but seemed more like a design choice. The top hat he wore definitely stood out- dark red like the rest of his outfit, with a golden crown atop it and golden jewels covering the rim.</p>
<p>Honestly, he seemed like a stuck-up, over egoistic brat of a sort to him.</p>
<p>He looked back at Sven for a brief moment before looking at the general. Said general sighed as he took a large stack of papers out of his pockets and gave them to the leader of the clan, who wrinkled his light brown cloak as he stretched his arms out to take them.</p>
<p>Reginald looked at the papers for a moment, flipping through them but not actually reading what they said. He nodded, acknowledging their meaning.</p>
<p>It was part of a deal they made- since the Government had suspected the Toppats due to them being a criminal organisation that suddenly went to making and selling weapons to eradicate glitches, they requested that once a month the Toppats would give them a full report of everything they’d done, and in return the Government would give them any info they could use to enhance their weapons and make them less dangerous to citizens but more to glitches.</p>
<p>It was enough to leave them alone, but…</p>
<p>As Reginald gave the general- his name started with a ‘G’ but Burt STILL couldn’t remember the rest- his own stack of papers, he sighed and began speaking.</p>
<p>“Why, exactly, have you visited here twice this month? We said it would only be once on the second of each month, I can’t prepare without warning like I had to yesterday…” He bit his lip as he awaited an answer from the opposing side.</p>
<p>The government members looked at each other for a moment before nodding.</p>
<p>“Two main reasons… One, we’ve been hearing reports of- unusual activity in this area. It’s starting to annoy the citizens, and they suspect that it’s something paranormal- just like we do.” The one speaking crossed their arms and nodded as the Toppats in the room looked at each other with concern and worry clear on their faces.</p>
<p>“…We haven’t been doing anything outside of the norm. I swear, we can get you a copy of the security footage if we need, but really, everything’s been inside of the norm,” Burt furrowed his eyebrows as he began explaining that to them.</p>
<p>The general sighed. “That’d be good. And, the second reason that we came here is because of a certain team that we made to find out the source of the recent activity spike in hostile glitches. They contacted us, and they’re coming here in a few hours to find out what they can. I hope that you can be cooperative with them,” he glared at Perran and the Right Hand Man (who Burt had noticed but hadn’t paid attention to) as he spoke. The two had been known for being a little- well- overprotective and too cautious in the past and may have made a few… hundred… mistakes in that area.</p>
<p>For example, one time they had sent in one of their former pilots in to investigate almost as soon as the Toppats had begun developing their new technology- and let’s just say that he was dropkicked out of the window by a particularly moody blond Toppat.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry- we’ll make sure that we don’t cause too much trouble. We’ll help any way we can,” Reginald said. But of course, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t looking forward to having any more people over, especially with, what, a three-four hour warning? That wasn’t exactly his idea of productive or pleasant.</p>
<p>The general (Galeforce, he realised. Burt had finally taken the initiative of reading his nametag, god he was so stupid-) nodded and stood up, everyone else in the room shortly following these same actions themselves as they all turned to look at each other.</p>
<p>“Thank you. More frequent meetings may have to be necessary in the future- and I suggest that you investigate the reason for these reports, if you don’t know already.” It was obvious that Galeforce thought that they did in fact know, even though they didn’t. Burt’d have to check the security footage to double check if anything was wrong, but he highly doubted it. People hallucinated all the time…</p>
<p>“Dismissed,” He heard, from someone. Everyone began going their separate ways, and Burt quickly caught up to Sven, nervous as he jog-walked over. Their eyes connected as the former began speaking.</p>
<p>“So, do you have any idea of what that’s all about?” He asked, and Sven shook his head, his light hair moving with him.</p>
<p>“No- I don’t recall anything of the sort happening. I have a few of the reports here,” He gestured to a thin stash of papers that he held in his hands, tapping it as he spoke. “-and they all say that it happened during the night. But I was fast asleep, and likely everyone else was as well.”</p>
<p>Burt bit his lip and nodded. That was the sort of answer he expected.</p>
<p>…He could feel the adrenaline from the meeting fading around him. He sighed and rubbed his eyes- his shift had just likely ended, so he supposed he could review the security footage that he missed and then go to sleep.</p>
<p>He began walking back to his own office as soon as he finished thinking about that, leaving a slightly confused Sven to go back to his as well after he realised that they had completely finished.</p>
<hr/>
<p>26-12-15-2-15 19-2-15 11-7-4-5-1-26-5-2-1, 5-6 15-19-17-12 1-11-16-15.</p>
<p>11-26'1 5-6-8-21 13-5-11-6-13 26-5 13-15-26 16-19-2-9-15-2, 14-2-5-7 12-15-2-15 5-6 5-25-26....</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>18-15 17-19-2-15-14-25-8</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I had a whole other, what, 400 words written exclusive to the Amino version.<br/>Read it here, I guess: https://aminoapps.com/c/henrystickmin112/page/blog/multiverse-incorrection-ch-3-parasyte-au-ch-3/ga5w_pKS6uVBJMGdJ0agDGNxzGkJWLMkZ7t3<br/>This chapter is mostly a filler one, and also an early update! I might take a bit longer to update, because of that…<br/>Also, I realised that I forgot to put a cipher at the end of last chapter… How terrible… so I’m giving you a triple decoded one here instead! I’m so nice!<br/>Next time: The trio goes to the Toppats to investigate!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This is the longest chapter, so... yay...?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Henry sighed as he watched Ellie heave her backpack up, swinging it around until it finally landed onto her own back. Judging by her slight wince when it hit her, it was likely quite heavy and jam-packed full of supplies.</p>
<p>After delivering the news that they were to go visit the Toppat base for more intel, they had quickly begun repacking a few of the more necessary supplies that they’d need for the semi-short trip and were now ready to go. Everyone had already eaten their breakfast (it was actually pretty good, for something so small and short, but they didn’t really have time to savour the eggs nor the crispy sausages) and, now that they were full, were preparing to leave.</p>
<p>Of course, they left most of their stuff here, in the hotel room- they’d be returning here, of course. It wasn’t as if they’d just completely leave the town for more than six, seven hours.</p>
<p>Ellie, with her backpack now on, smiled as Henry walked closer to the door, opening it semi-proudly as he looked back at her still holding the silver knob.</p>
<p>“After you,” He hummed, and she rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room. Deffy was already standing outside, bouncing slightly as he smiled back at her, grinning just like Henry was. The latter closed the door and walked after them, a hand still on his hip as he continued staring at him.</p>
<p>“So, let’s go!” Deffy was still smiling as he lined up single file with the two of them, striking a brief pose before relaxing a bit.</p>
<p>With all of their supplies, the trio began making their way down the stairs, leaving unnoticeable footsteps in the dark orange carpet as they left the hotel.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Henry sighed in relief as the group reached the edge of the city- he was fine with visiting an overcrowded, overpopulated area but honestly, he preferred a place that could be as private as he wanted. He wasn’t really one for social interaction and being away from said city was honestly great to him.</p>
<p>Deffy pulled out a pale tan map, staring at it for a moment before pointing straight ahead.</p>
<p>“Should just be… a couple kilometres ahead. We… probably should’ve taken a taxi…” He muttered, placing a hand on his chin as he looked at the large grassy expanse ahead.</p>
<p>…Well, it was a bit late now.</p>
<p>They began walking, continuing on their journey to the base.</p>
<p>…This might take a while.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Soon enough, around an hour later, the base was within their line of sight. Upon noticing it, Deffy began running out towards it as fast as he could before he was stopped by his truly exhausted teammates- his boundless energy wasn’t a common trait within the rest of the group.</p>
<p>The duo catching up with him, it really didn’t take long for them to arrive at the giant mass of buildings. Most of them were grey, but a few were dull metal blue, orange or brown. The expanse reached out for several kilometres, which was quite the sight for anyone who hadn’t seen it before- aka, all of the group.</p>
<p>“Woah… It’s so big- how are we going to find where everything is?” Deffy asked, biting his lip as he looked at the many buildings in a mix of shock and awe.</p>
<p>“There’s signs around here- I’m sure we can navigate around easily,” Henry huffed and continued walking forward into the campus, shoving his hands into the pockets of his grey sweater as he did so.</p>
<p>There were indeed several signs around; a variety of dark green signs pointing many different directions were to be found almost anywhere that Ellie looked. Inspecting one of them, there was an arrow pointing to the ‘visitor centre’. She grinned- this was probably where they were supposed to go.</p>
<p>“Hey, guys! I think it’s this way!” She yelled out to them as she waved, pointing over to one of the buildings. With the amount of yelling and wandering they were doing, it was a wonder that they hadn’t encountered any Toppats yet. Well, there probably were some occasionally walking about, but not in their specific vicinity…</p>
<p>Deffy and Henry’s attention was caught, and they rushed over to where Ellie was. She began walking towards one of the orange buildings, nearing it and peering at the small stone sign before nodding and walking inside after opening the dark brown door. Looking at each other and nodding just like Ellie had, the duo followed after her.</p>
<p>“Hello? Anyone here?” She mumbled as she looked around the inside of the building, tempted to sit down on the couple of dark navy couches but continued on as she walked towards the counter. Looking at it again, there was a bored-looking Toppat sitting at the desk and typing what seemed to be random numbers to her.</p>
<p>She smiled and looked at them in the eyes. “Hiya! I’m Ellie, we have a bit of an appointment scheduled or something… Should be under ‘Stickmin’ or something, I think?” She said semi-enthusiastically, still smiling as she stared at him. He just looked up at her boredly, likely wanting to yawn but unable to when someone was in his company.</p>
<p>“Wait a moment… I’ll try and… pull something up for you…” He sighed and continued typing on the computer. Ellie nodded gratefully and walked over to the couches, sitting down and moving her hand over the hard fabric rhythmically as she began waiting for something to happen. Henry and Deffy walked into the room soon after, quickly catching wind of what was going on and sat down next to Ellie as they began waiting with her.</p>
<p>It took around 15 minutes, and by the time the guy at the front desk had finished, they finally looked up at them.</p>
<p>“You’re in room 24W… the block over there.” He pointed to a nearby block that could be seen through the window, not giving any more useful information and honestly not helping any more than that.</p>
<p>Realising that he wasn’t going to elaborate, Henry sighed and stood up, the others shortly following him as they walked out of the visitors building.</p>
<p>“How big is this place anyways?” Deffy asked, slightly less enthusiastic now that they had wasted around 45 minutes in total trying to find out where they were supposed to go.</p>
<p>“I have no idea- let’s just hope that it’s not too big,” Henry grumbled, walking up to the door for the entrance of the building.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Inside of the room, the Toppats were boredly waiting as they sat down at the large table. Ever since the government had let them know about the seemingly important event, they had already come up with anything that they could to quote en quote ‘help’ them.</p>
<p>The dark gray door, contrasting with the white walls, opened after a while as the trio that they had been waiting to arrive (for about an hour- seriously, what had been keeping them for so long?) walked through the door, somewhat nervous as they met eyes with the leaders who were surrounding the table.</p>
<p>“Sorry we’re late- had a bit of a hard time finding the room, hehe,” Deffy stated nervously, pressing his fingers together as he pulled out a chair and sat down.</p>
<p>“It’s alright- we weren’t waiting for too long,” Reginald hummed while Burt sighed and rolled his eyes. An hour was pretty long to be waiting for an arrival.</p>
<p>“So, as you’ve probably been informed… there have been reports of a spike in aggressive anomalies. And since you came here, and you’re all supposed to be experts on that sort of thing, we’re going to interview you of a sort,” Henry looked away boredly, his voice monotone as he repeated what he had told himself to tell them.</p>
<p>Sven nodded. It made sense- them being used to glitch appearances and fighting them off and all.</p>
<p>“If you’re looking for where they would be- secluded, dark areas, presumably at the edge of a town or city.” He hummed to himself, actually thinking about it. Wow, what a surprise- he was helpful to people that he barely knew, but not to his supposed best friend. Burt sighed. Life would be like that sometimes…</p>
<p>“Thanks, but… Do you have any similar reports or findings? Any personal encounters, perhaps…?” Henry tried again, still trying to wheedle out whatever he could. Honestly, did NOBODY in this godforsaken world know what they were looking for?!</p>
<p>Well, apparently not.</p>
<p>“We haven’t had any field agents go out recently, no… but maybe you all could go out yourselves to try and find- well, something.” Burt put a hand on his chin, still as bored as he had been half an hour ago.</p>
<p>Deffy sighed. Had they come out just for useless info and reports which didn’t help at all…? He didn’t want to think that they just… wasted their time…</p>
<p>“Hmm… I think we have had something, actually,” Reginald muttered as he took a stack of papers out of his pocket and flicking through them, the air slightly cooling down the room.</p>
<p>“Here- near the central of the town, anomalous activity seems to be high, even though none have actually been sighted…” He frowned in thought, and Henry was slightly intrigued. So, they did have to go back into the town- but there weren’t any glitch sightings…? Could it have been some levels of ‘corruption’ that they were sensing?</p>
<p>“If you’re going to go glitch-hunting or whatever, then shouldn’t you be needing weapons?” A random member adorned with a standard black top hat asked, yawning.</p>
<p>Deffy and Ellie looked at each other excitedly with stars in their eyes as Henry pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, an expression basically translating to something like ‘oh boy, here we go again’.</p>
<hr/>
<p>After moving over to the ‘weapons’ department area (seriously- this place was gigantic. How did they know where everything was?!) the excitement only grew.</p>
<p>They walked into a room with pure white walls, a few models of a large variety of weapons hung up against the different walls, all on display as the trio were accompanied to pick out anything of their choosing.</p>
<p>Deffy ran straight up to a long, silver weapon with a small, hooked incisor. Only a few weapons here seemed to be handheld- the tips coated in some odd, strange chemical which was likely why they would even be remotely effective against glitches.</p>
<p>“This is a, um- I don’t know what it’s called-” He said, still enthusiastic as he looked at it with excitement.</p>
<p>“It’s a glaive. It’s mostly for defense, but can have some offensive capabilities as well,” One of the Toppats who was accompanying them shrugged as they watched him take it off the wall and immediately almost fall backwards. The thing was heavy, made out of almost-solid metal.</p>
<p>Henry peered at a few darts, inspecting the ends of them before nodding and snatching a tiny quiver off the wall and storing them away before finding a suitable blowgun to use with the darts and comparing the two to make sure they fit together well. The corners of his mouth twitched into the slightest smile as he held them in his hands.</p>
<p>Ellie was looking at the standard energy blaster, tilting her head as she had to go on the toes of her feet in order to reach it, smiling as she looked at it. Even though it was just the normal model, she hadn’t ever had one before- was this how people felt with guns?</p>
<p>Even though she knew that they couldn’t harm other people, still…</p>
<p>“I want this!” She grinned like a child deciding on candy to buy at a sweets store, holding it up in her hands.</p>
<p>“We’re not stopping you from getting it,” Henry rolled his eyes and she simply squealed.</p>
<p>After the trio had made sure that this was exactly what they wanted, they ‘bought’ their items of a sort- even though they were free, they still had to tell them exactly what they wanted so they could replace the ones which had previously been in that room.</p>
<p>“We’re totally loaded!” Ellie laughed as she blissfully skipped out of the building.</p>
<p>“Have you guys forgotten that we’re on a MISSION?” Henry grumbled and followed down after her.</p>
<p>“Wait, we are? I forgot about that a bit in all of the excitement,” Deffy sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he took a few steps outside of the Toppat campus and onto the grass.</p>
<p>Ellie began laughing.</p>
<hr/>
<p>From the window of the weapons department, Perran glared down at where the trio was. Why were they investigating suddenly, and now? He knew he had been prepared, but…</p>
<p>He had heard rumours, about two of them. Nobody exactly knew why any of them had joined the anomaly research departments that they had- call it fate or Gravity, it didn’t matter.</p>
<p>When he looked up files on the three of them, not all of them were available- some fuzzed or ‘glitched’ out, with ciphers covering some of the text. It seemed that he didn’t have the right permissions to see all of the files, and that was what concerned him the most.</p>
<p>Why were these people so special…?</p>
<p>Huffing, he turned away from the window, glowering at thin air.</p>
<p>He fully intended to find out every single little bit about these mysterious people.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rm uilmg lu z nlmrgli, gsv xorxph zmw hlfmwh lu yfgglmh vxslvw gsilfts gsv illn. Vzxs dliw, vzxs ovggvi gsvb gbkvw xlevivw hlnvgsrmt fk. Gsvb nzwv hfiv gl xlevi rg zoo fk, nzprmt rg sziwvi uli zmb kibrmt vbvh gl hvv.<br/>"Nzbyv wvovgrmt rg dlfow yv vzhrvi, yfg gsrh droo szev gl wl uli mld."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Huh. So, that just happened.<br/>And, yeah, the files that he viewed were the official wiki pages which you can find here in these links!<br/>All of the art done is drawn by me-<br/>All the wikis are in here. Just scroll down.<br/> https://aminoapps.com/c/henrystickmin112/page/item/parasyte-au/rwaz_kKCqIK1lYpPMQZxEEd7JpGQ631lr <br/>Next time- Oh. Oh boy.<br/>This is going to get interesting real fast.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>How am I supposed to explain this?!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shouts and battle cries were heard, echoing all throughout the large expansive field as Deffy swung his weapon at a few blades of grass, chopping it up as the green faded as it fell down into the rest of the grass below. As those fell, he continued chopping, not bothering to clean it off or to slice off anything else, the only cluster of buildings or sign of civilization present being the city in the somewhat near distance.</p><p>Henry sighed. How in the name of Heaven was he supposed to put up with these two? All of this attacking and ‘fun times’ were bad enough, and the fact that he was going to have to take care of these ‘children’ for god knows how long…</p><p>Yeah, it was obvious that this would be quite the hassle and struggle for him, especially if this had to go on for another week or, if he was unlucky, even more…</p><p>At least, while Deffy was having fun destroying the nature around them by ‘trimming’ the grass, they were able to move closer and closer to the outskirts of the city which was no longer in the distance but instead right in front of them.</p><p>“What time is it, anyways?” Ellie mumbled, her energy running out quickly after all of the initial excitement and adrenaline had worn off. It was beginning to get dark, and she really wanted to rest… even though the possibility of her being able to do that for long was growing slim as the time went on.</p><p>“Judging by the sky and the built-in time on my phone, 10PM.” Henry huffed, shoving his hands into his pockets while he watched the other two continue to walk around, too slow even for his liking. The moon was clearly visible in the sky, and the stars would appear in about half an hour, quite late in fact, even for this season- they likely had to hurry up if they wanted to get there soon.</p><p>“Come on- the entrance is literally RIGHT THERE in front of us, let’s go already!” He shook his head, scowling as he walked faster, the others following his actions soon after he began advancing.</p><p>Didn’t stop Deffy to still want to go back and cut some more grass, though.</p>
<hr/><p>Ellie flopped onto the hotel bed, smiling as she pressed her head into the golden silk pillow, grabbing it and untensing as she eased into it and the soft fabric. After so much walking around for those several long, boring hours, the relaxation and comfort felt so nice, and she felt at- well, a home away from home. A hotel room, to be exact.</p><p>She wouldn’t be able to rest long, of course- after having dinner then they’d have to go back outside to investigate, since apparently some of the anomalous activity had also been occurring late in the day, almost at night.</p><p>Not exactly what she was hoping for or what she wanted to do tonight, but it was supposed to be their job to do this after all… even if they really weren’t good at it…</p><p>Taking her phone out of her pocket and beginning to browse the internet, she sighed. She could go ahead and relax while she could- at least, for now.</p><p>She doubted she’d be able to sleep tonight without any interruptions, unluckily enough for her, but maybe she could be at least semi-productive. Taking a pair of rosegold earbuds out from her pocket, she plugged the jack into the phone and began playing a couple of files that she had downloaded onto her phone, which played in the background as she opened Chrome and began researching.</p><p>“Let the joy of love take you higher…*” She hummed melodically as she scrolled through the tabs, going through whatever she could in this short amount of time before she was to set off.</p><p>She didn’t even notice when her eyes grew tired and her finger fell onto the bed, the songs still playing peacefully in the background as she fell down, closing her eyes and falling asleep.</p>
<hr/><p>After finding out that the research was useless and that it would be practically impossible to crack the codes with the number of ciphers placed onto the text, Perran sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, noticing it to be quite sweaty after the amount of work he had done. The other Toppats had been useless in his search, not understanding it either, and by this point he was getting exasperated.</p><p>Once around seven hours had passed, he had to take a break- and after reviewing everything and making sure that he hadn’t missed anything, he decided to give up.</p><p>Time had passed since he had made that choice- the moon was in the sky, its white light shining through the windows and present, reflecting upon the surrounding area as he took a few steps through the long, otherwise dark hallway.</p><p>Almost everyone else in both this and most of the other buildings were asleep as he walked down the hallway a bit more completely silently apart from the sounds of his leather boots on the hard metal echoing as he moved, yet not enough to wake anyone up or to disturb them. Thank goodness- he didn’t need to draw any needless attention to himself.</p><p>As Perran continued walking, he moved past a few doors- including one which he had to double back on to check it was there. The colour of the door was a dark brown in contrast to the grey which the other rows of doors were, the handle a soft murky gold instead of the hard, reflective silver which he was normally used to. Having seen this door before, he knew what it represented.</p><p>He put his hand on the knob, his smirk only growing as the handle began glitching slightly, his grip still not faltering despite it. Pushing down the handle, he opened the door, walking through the space and closing the door again, eyes moving rapidly as he looked around at the large expanse of pure darkness. The door behind him glitched out of existence as he was left into a temporary ‘void’, of a sort.</p><p>It wasn’t really a void, though- not when there was someone else in there.</p><p>…The some’one’ part was debatable, though.</p><p>Perran crossed his arms as his eyes narrowed, glaring at the glitch laying on a just as incorporeal couch as it- he- began corrupting a box of popcorn that he was holding, essentially dissolving, and ‘eating’ it. He wore a dark green hood with an oversized grey string and an equally grey tunic, but apart from the occasional glitching effect he would almost seem… normal.</p><p>“Y’know,” The glitch said, the corruption intensifying slightly as he spoke. “With what we have going on here or whatever, I’d have thought that you’d have come to me <em>before </em>you did all of that intense research. A waste of time, I’d reckon,” He huffed, crossing his legs boredly and raising an eyebrow as he stared at the Toppat.</p><p>“5YT-3, you know I have better things to do than to linger around here with you,” Perran scoffed and looked away pointedly as the other just rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Remember- we made a trade. You help me occasionally and don’t hurt any of the other Toppats, and I don’t rat you out to everyone. You’re lucky I haven’t already with the attitude you’re giving me; nobody could actually like that.”</p><p>“It’s called PERSONALITY. And it’s Syte, not that stupid mass of numbers and letters.” Syte smirked and the other just continued glaring.</p><p>“Anyways, I’m assuming you want me to recover those files for you?” He grinned, putting a finger up as he spoke somewhat playfully.</p><p>“Ugh… But, yes, you’re right. Those files have some sort of code on them and I can’t for the life of me figure out what they are or what the encryption key is supposed to be.” Perran huffed once more and put his hands on his hips, gripping the red fabric’s wrinkles tightly, still exasperated.</p><p>“Alright- just send the files to the flashdrive I gave you last time this sort of thing happened, and then I’ll do the rest. But I’m going to go out to eat, okay? I’m hungry…” Syte spoke, and as the other was walking towards the door and began processing the sentence, he froze, turning around to stare at him.</p><p>“What? Spaghetti’s nice!”</p>
<hr/><p>Of course, although they were supposed to have gone out during the night, it just so happened that both Deffy and Ellie had fallen asleep. It was typical, Henry supposed- he was the only one focused on task enough to actually stay awake.</p><p>Sure, it was late, but he had insomnia issues and he would abuse the ability to not sleep if it meant that he was able to get his job done faster.</p><p>Hopping off of the couch and turning off the TV (It had been playing some random cartoon on Gisney, he hadn’t been that interested in it, but it wasn’t bad), he took the small black fabric bag full of necessary equipment and hung it over his shoulder before walking over to the door, whistling an unfamiliar tune as he did so.</p><p>Henry, grasping the handle, looked back at the two who were ‘peacefully’ sleeping briefly- Ellie drooling on the pillow as the music was still playing through her headphones, and Deffy mumbling something about shops and stuffed animals.</p><p>Yeah, maybe it was best that he was just leaving them here…</p><p>As he walked out of the room hurriedly and, to that extent, the hotel, he looked around. Now to find some place which would be bright enough, rowdy enough and also big enough to fit any hiding glitches in it…</p><p>It really didn’t take long to find a suitable place, as looking upwards, there was a large sign reading ‘ARENA’, flashing in bright yellow and black colours, the two alternating as Henry’s eyes widened upon noticing it.</p><p>Rubbing his hands together, he grinned darkly as he took a few steps over towards the concrete of the area near his newfound destination, ignoring the harsh crunch of the fallen leaves underneath him as he walked into the arena.</p><p>The first thing Henry noticed as he walked in was the people- rows and rows of people sitting down. The entry line was nonexistent now, but he shuddered to think of what it could have been like earlier, back when this game had first started. It was a surprise that there even were seats- it was likely just a small, random game that not many people cared about.</p><p>The second thing that he noticed was that the sport the people in the center were playing was some sort of odd, indoor rugby.</p><p>Henry walked closer to the rest of the audience, sitting down as quietly as he could to not cause too much of a mess or to draw any attention to himself. It wasn’t like he wanted anything to be drawn to him unwillingly, although friendly conversation wasn’t unwanted or anything.</p><p>As he walked over to the end of the row and sat down, (not with a particularly great vantage point, not that he really cared about the game) he looked around. Most of the other rooms here seemed quite dark, judging from the lack of light emanating from the other areas, and this seemed to be the only occupied room at the moment.</p><p>The noise was quite distracting, really- Henry could barely think over the loud sounds echoing through the area, and this place didn’t seem to be any good for what he was looking for- unless the arena could be fruitful in terms of information.</p><p>He shuffled a bit closer, switching seats closer to where the rest of the audience were in hopes to get both involved and somewhat talkative with them.</p><p>“Soooo- uh, very interesting, right? Look- look at em go…” He said, gulping. He wasn’t quite sure what to say, and he didn’t exactly have the best social skills.</p><p>“Yeah, right. You actually find this interesting? Where’s the action? The violence?? Kid, if you think this is fun you should see some of the things that I’ve seen…” One of the people next to him groaned, the dark grey feathers of their coat pushing into their skin.</p><p>Henry’s attention was immediately caught. “Really?! You’ve seen… things like that?” He asked excitedly, glad to finally have some actual intel of a sort.</p><p>“Yeah. I’ve seen some pretty cool things- do you want to see, too?” They grinned, standing up slightly from their seat, holding their left arm tightly as they did so.</p><p>“Of course! Where can I find the gl- I mean, the… that?” Henry asked, his idiotic grin still fresh on his face.</p><p>“Behind you.” A different voice spoke, and Henry was barely able to catch his surroundings shifting from one to another as he felt a sharp, rising pain in the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.</p>
<hr/><p>Deffy rubbed his head, looking around confused as he woke up to see the light pouring through the windows and the sound of birds chirping.</p><p>“Huh,” He said.</p><p>Why did it feel like someone really needed him right now?</p><p>Shrugging, he turned back over on the bed, closing his eyes as he attempted to fall asleep again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Woah! This was, surprisingly, a bit early. Didn’t think I could do it, hehe-<br/>Anyways! We’re ACTUALLY starting on with the plot. Expect some, maybe, action next chapter as well as some future Slice of Life segments in the future!<br/>Next time: As Deffy and Ellie wake up to find Henry missing, they go on a ‘rescue mission’. Wait, what’s this about it being a fun night? And what’s with all the murder?!<br/>Update as of 17/3/21- I actually finished this a while ago but was working on the next chapter at the same time- unfortunately, due to a Microsoft error, both WIPs were deleted. But I'm almost done rewriting the first one, so I'll get that done soon!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Henry let out a low grumble, the sound echoing from wall to wall in the dark, stone room he was currently in. Having just woken up, the first thing he did was rub his eyes, and then realize that, once his vision had cleared up, this was in fact not where he had been just a few… minutes ago? Hours? Days?<br/>
The last time he had been conscious. That worked.</p><p>He whipped his head around in shock and confusion, alarms instantly ringing in his head as he remembered what had happened earlier, however earlier his definition of the word would have been.</p><p>As he tried to stand up and move around, he realized that he couldn’t- looking down at himself, his hands were tied together, and his torso was also strapped to the wall with some sort of odd-looking yellow-y, old bandage.</p><p>No, he really didn’t want to think about it too much.</p><p>Due to the low durability of it, after a bit of struggling, he was able to create a few rips in it- but the moment he did, they were instantly repaired, the colours and shape changing for a brief moment as it glitched. His eyes widened, and the bandages were repaired as soon as it ended.</p><p>So not only could he not escape, but there was also some sort of glitch keeping him here.</p><p>Great.</p><p>He immediately froze up as yet another sound- one that he had certainly NOT caused- rung in his ears. The sounds of the dark oak door creaking open, the rusty hinges swinging open as his captor properly revealed itself.</p><p>“Y’know, I’m pretty hungry,” It shrugged, the large mass of dark gray fur attached to the dark red coat (the same that he had been wearing earlier, Henry just realised) brushing the underside of their head as it spoke, licking their slightly sharpened teeth.</p><p>“Though, of course, if I keep waiting then soon enough you won’t be the only one here.” It hummed a bit, the tune unfamiliar to Henry as his thoughts continued scrambling for some way to escape.</p><p>“We’ll just have to see how this plays out, won’t we, hmm?” It smirked, and he continued shrinking underneath it’s gaze as one single thought played out for him.</p><p>’<em>Okay, it’s official- I’m doomed.’</em></p>
<hr/><p>Something was definitely off. As Ellie and Deffy woke up, one of the first few things that they noticed was that there wasn’t the usual sound of Henry whining and groaning about something (whether it was the weather, the time, the lack of his favorite coffee, or literally anything else) and when they got up and checked his bed, it was empty.</p><p>Maybe he had gone out by himself?</p><p>This seemed to be the case- after looking around a bit, Ellie found a small, pink sticky note underneath his empty pillow, and inspected it only for a bit before her eyes widened.</p><p>‘If you read this, I’m probably not here. I’ve decided to go out investigating, since you two fell asleep, and if I’m not here in the morning then just check around for wherever seems interesting? I’ll probably be there. Maybe. I don’t know, just… look better?’</p><p>Wow. Thanks. Best advice ever. She rolled her eyes before continuing to read the note. It just had his signature on it- but in the corner of her eye, she could catch some writing on the very back of it.</p><p>The handwriting seemed slightly different, but since she had just woken up, she couldn’t be bothered to tell the difference or to even investigate it, immediately writing it off as Henry’s.</p><p>
  <em>'Update: I can see some odd activity in the distance about two streets away from here- if you keep looking around Paisley Rd, I’ll likely be there. I’ll see you then!’</em>
</p><p>That was all it said, but it was good enough for her.</p><p>She stood up and walked over to where Deffy was investigating a random drawer for some reason, slapping him on the back to get his attention. As he let out a small whine in irritation, she just kept grinning.</p><p>“Let’s go! We don’t have all day!”</p><p>“Wh-whaaaat? Where are we going?” He yelped as he was led by the hand to the door.</p><p>“You’ll see!”</p><p>He doubted she even knew where the place they were supposed to be going was, but he had his fingers crossed that they weren’t going to get lost and somehow wind up in a bar or whatever.</p><p>…and as he was being dragged down and across the streets, barely escaping being crushed by a few racing cyclists and speeding cars, he realised that they definitely weren’t going to a normal building.</p><p>At the end of the street was what seemed to be a simple grey (mostly the darker tones, but the roof was shaded lighter than the walls) shed, which was exactly what she had been looking for.</p><p>“Look how simple it is- it’s suspicious. This should be it, right?” She mumbled to herself, looking at the note that she had taken again.</p><p>“Be what? Why are we even here?” Deffy asked, exasperated as he stared at both it and her in confusion.</p><p>“Apparently Henry went here, I think… it’s probably this place? I mean, it does look just a little out of place… so I’m going in!” Ellie grinned and walked towards it, grasping the hard-to-spot matching silver handle and turning it.</p><p>“Wait, are you sure that’s a good ide-” Her friend started, but was unable to finish as she walked into the room. His eyes widened, and he quickly ran after her. He reached for her uniform to pull her back, but he paused upon looking around his surroundings.</p><p>Sometime in between when he had stepped inside, their location had changed- shifted, glitched- and they were no longer where they thought they would be.</p><p>From behind him, some music suddenly started playing, the song completely unfamiliar to him. When Deffy turned back, there was a brown, old-fashioned radio playing some ‘positive’ and ‘calming’ music, and it was propped up onto a wooden tabletop counter.</p><p>“What the…” He mumbled, looking around. Either the area had transformed somehow, or he had been teleported.</p><p>And judging by how the weather was now bright and sunny instead of the partially cloudy that it had been just a few minutes later, none of those options were too hard to believe.</p><p>Wherever he was seemed like a completely empty bar, apart from Ellie and him.</p><p>“Okay. Definitely not normal, but this probably should’ve been what I expected… considering how weird the universe is.” She tried, looking around for any sort of hint about what they were even supposed to do.</p><p>She found what she had been searching for as her eyes finally landed on two figures- one who was smugly laying on one of the booths, and Henry- who happened to be ‘tied up’ to the bottom of the table, unable to move as the bandages were exactly identical to the ones he had been stuck with earlier.</p><p>“I gotta say, this is definitely not the comfiest place to be. Stuck under a table…” Henry huffed, not even bothering to struggle against the bonds but instead talking to the duo who had just entered. He lifted his head up, accidentally hitting it into the table that was above him.</p><p>“Wh- Henry! What happened??” Deffy asked concerned as he took a few steps forwards, his pace picking up as he got closer towards the other.</p><p>“Mmm- I’d say that I happened.” The glitch said, sitting up from their laying down position and looking down at Henry from the booth behind the table.</p><p>“Apart from that, nothing.” It put their legs up onto the table, grinning and placing their hands behind their head in a more comfortable position.</p><p>“Oh my god,” Deffy said, a mix of awe, horror and maybe even excitement in his voice. It wouldn’t be unusual for him to think like that, though- he hadn’t ever seen anyone in or been put in this situation before.</p><p>Not that it wasn’t bad. Because it really, really, was.</p><p>“Um, stay put, we’ll do something-” He looked around frantically for anything that he could use to help him, but to no avail. Was there even anything that they could do…?</p><p>Since he was unable to find anything, he just continued approaching, reaching a hand out to try and break apart the bonds that held him, even if it was just using physical strength.</p><p>As Deffy tried to grab them, Henry stopped him.</p><p>“Don’t- it won’t work. They’ve been enhanced- corrupted.” He looked up and over at his captor.</p><p>“Wow, you actually got something right for once.” It rolled their eyes, taunting them silently.</p><p>“Fortunately for me, you can’t get him back by force. If you really want him back, then you’re going to have to beat me.” It stood up to their full height, and Ellie bravely (more like foolishly, though) took a few steps forwards to show that she wasn’t afraid.</p><p>It paused and reached into their pockets, bringing out a couple decks of cards and a large assortment of random items which didn’t really go together, and there didn’t seem to be an obvious reason for why it had all of those.</p><p>“In a game.” It finished the sentence, crossing its arms and nodding. Ellie and Deffy immediately untensed upon hearing that they wouldn’t have to get into any physical action- it wasn’t like they brought any of their weapons.</p><p>“Oh. So, we just play go fish or something and we get him back if we win?” Ellie asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head as she spoke.</p><p>“Basically. But if you admit defeat or lose, of course, then you join your friend over here.” It grinned, fully confident about its abilities to win at the ‘game’.</p><p>“So… that’s easy, right? Uh, what are we going to play…?” Deffy said, gulping. While it was a game, which would normally make him happy, the chance of him losing…</p><p>At least it was two against one, though, right?</p><p>“You can go ahead and choose first- I’ll give you an advantage this time.” The glitch shrugged, and he paused, trying to come up with an idea. It must’ve thought that he would lose, judging by his word usage… they needed to get this done as fast as possible.</p><p>“U-Um…” What sort of game could they play?!</p><p>“Does it have to be a game? You said it’s just if we admit defeat or lose or something, right? Then we can just do this in some sort of other method?” He suggested, trying to buy himself some more time to come up with what he would possibly have a chance at winning with.</p><p>The other blinked. “Well, you could, but it wouldn’t be as fun…” It almost seemed somewhat disgusted at the notion of it.</p><p>“We could do, um, riddles? Like, if someone can’t get them right then they lose? I… really can’t come up with anything…” He looked down at the floor as he admitted it, somewhat ashamed that this was all his mind could focus on right now.</p><p>You couldn’t really blame him- being shoved into a situation like that would certainly be stressful, and having to come up with something like that on the spot would be hard.</p><p>“I- I suppose we could. You go first, then.” It sighed, the mood on the situation brought down considerably.</p><p>“Alright,” Deffy gulped as he tried to think of examples that he had seen or said in the past. “’ Which English word is the odd one out: Stun, Ton, Evil, Letter, Mood, Bad, Strap, Snap, and Straw?’”</p><p>The other laughed, slamming a hand down on the table as the other lingered next to its hip. The sly grin that had been present earlier returned. “That’s easy- ‘letter’ is the only one which doesn’t make a word when it’s spelt backwards.”</p><p>He bit his lip. Okay, so it had gotten that right… what would he not get? Of course, Deffy didn’t have time to linger on that thought as he was snapped up from his thoughts.</p><p>“Well, it’s my turn now… ‘A man attending his mother’s funeral, sees a woman in another pew, and experiences love at first sight. He tries to find her but has no luck. A few weeks later, he kills his sister. Why does he kill his sister?’”</p><p>He paused for a moment as he thought about it. It was a particularly gruesome riddle, not one specifically to his tastes, but he had to figure it out nonetheless- which he did, after a bit of incomprehensible murmuring on his part. “Um… if she… oh, that would be to see the woman at his sister’s funeral! Not, uh, the best choice, but I won’t complain…” While most would say that he would be a psychopath for this sort of answer, hey, some people who worked with him were pretty weird. “Me again, um… ‘You go at red, but stop at green, what am I?’”</p><p>“Watermelon, you don’t eat the green part. Most people don’t, anyways. ‘A man was found dead out in a field of snow. The only tracks that were left was a set of footprints between two parallel lines. Who should the police be looking for’?”</p><p>“A man in a wheelchair! That’s how those marks would be made. So, ‘My head is red but turns black when you scratch it. What am I?’”</p><p>“A match, turns black after it’s lit. Well, ‘You’re stuck in a room with no windows, doors, or vents to use to climb out. In the room with you is a light, a mirror, and a log of wood. How do you get out?’”</p><p>Deffy froze once more like had the past few times. What was that even supposed to mean? Syllables, letters, actual answers? Puns? What was the answer here? There seemed to be some sort of process, but he couldn’t figure it out. How would these items help him escape from a room?!</p><p>He knew, at this exact moment, that he couldn’t have an answer. He must’ve run out of time by now.</p><p>
  <em>I’ve already lost, haven’t I..?</em>
</p><p>And with that admit of absolute defeat, he vanished. Well, only for a moment, to appear right next to Henry with the same bindings that the other had wrapped tightly around him. He continued struggling as he figured out what happened, but he couldn’t do anything about it.</p><p>“Well, kid,” The glitch gave a toothy grin to Ellie, and she tensed up, clenching her fists.</p><p>“Looks like it’s all down to me and you now.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>stupid Microsoft not saving my work<br/>Also, note that the glitch is called 8AI7, but of course, they don't know that.<br/>I have everything planned but I’ve been behind for 2 reasons,<br/>1, work not saving and not having time cuz many things are happening right now,<br/>2, I’ve been getting into some other fandoms but I’ll definitely finish this-<br/>Yeah-<br/>Next Time: Well… You can probably tell, can’t you?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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